News from the Red Room

Thanks to Sharon Loughrin, chatelaine of the Red Room at Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, for the latest news from Ireland's premier bluegrass house concert venue:

We had a very entertaining night last Sunday, not bluegrass though, but maybe you're interested in hearing about it yourself. We had a Nashville singer/songwriter, Kevin Montgomery, play a concert [photo above]. Lots of good stories: his father was Bob Montgomery who was in a band with Buddy Holly as kids, and co-wrote the song 'Heartbeat', along with many others such as 'Back in Baby's arms', recorded by Patsy Cline (their neighbour in Nashville at the time)

He was accompanied by a great local singer, Ruth Trimble from outside Belfast, also Mike McAdam on guitar, who has played with Bob Dylan and Steve Earle. We also had a first for the Red Room (perhaps for Ireland) in that Kevin streamed a live webcast from his laptop to fans around the world as the concert took place - there were people watching from Paris, Nashville, North Carolina... even Newtownstewart, Co. Tyrone! Our own Janet Dowd from Lurgan was in the audience and took to the stage to perform a tune, a great night had by all.


Main purpose of my e-mail is to let you know that we have a concert next Saturday night (18th). We spotted the Watery Hill Boys [photo above] on the BIB a few months ago and when we checked out their Facebook site we thought they sounded first class. We're really looking forward to having them up to play in the Red Room next Saturday night, their first time playing in the North I think. As usual, everyone is welcome and contact details are on our Facebook page.